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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Fall Garden, or It's not over until it's over

The summer was a real scorcher, but since mid-August it has
been cooler than normal.Plants are
still producing, but growing more slowly in the the cooler and shorter
days.The woods to the south will come
into play in a few more weeks, making the days too short to grow anything.I’ve tried planting fall lettuce, but by the
time the soil is cool enough to germinate seeds it’s too late.Spinach may or may not give me a fall crop.I planted some quick maturing spinach about
two weeks ago.

The sweet peppers and hot peppers have provided slow but
steady production all summer.I especially
like the Carmens, great flavor.The red pepper in the
lower left is a ripe Carmen.

It looks like most of the ancho peppers will ripen at the end
of the season.Only a few of its peppers
have ripened so far but it’s loaded with green and semi-ripe peppers.There’s a few now that have turned red and
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a good picking of anchos in a
week or two.I plan to dry them to use
in chili flakes or powder.I’m not sure
what stage of ripeness is best for this, but it’s probably when they are red
ripe.This plant is by far the largest
of the pepper plants.

In the same bed the two tomato plants have tomatoes in various
stages of ripening.The Supersonic plant
has tomatoes that should ripen over the next few weeks.The Black Krim does not produce as much as
the Supersonic, but it has held up very well for an heirloom. If the frost holds off I should get tomatoes for another month.

This is the brassica bed with the fall planting of cole
crops – 2 Starbor kale, 2 Kolibri kohlrabi, 2 Soloist chinese cabbage, 1 Tatsoi
and a cauliflower plant (foreground) which has no chance of making a head before
winter.The plants were seeded on Aug
14, which is a little late but before that it was hotter than blazes.At the end of the bed are two Jade Cross brussels
sprouts which are loaded with little stem cabbages.There’s also a cauliflower plant (upper left) that was
planted May 8.It resumed growing in the
cooler weather and is now forming a head! The Diva cucumber on the trellis is finished, but there's one more cucumber on the vine, which I plan to pick.

The parsnip foliage looks beat up.After taking these pics I cleaned out the
dead and diseased foliage- a case where writing about something motivated me to take action.The two red
burgundy okra plants continues to produce a few okra.Next year I want to plant okra in pots in
order to free up space in the beds.There’s two rows of carrots in the foreground.

The former potato bed now has beans. The Roma bush beans will be picked later today.
The cool weather the last few days has slowed them down a bit.They were seeded Aug 1.The cage of Kentucky Wonder pole beans was
seeded July 25 and has a few blossoms.It may need warmer weather to produce much.

This bed started out as the onion bed.It has a few rows of Dragon Langerie bush beans which were pulled up after this picture was taken.I cultivated the ground and planted two rows
of Double Choice spinach for overwintering. I’ll wait a week and plant two more rows.I’ve found that spinach planted too early
doesn’t overwinter that well, that’s why I’m doing two staggered plantings. There’s also some carrots and herbs in this
bed.

The butternut squash is a what's-there-to-lose experiment.After losing the first plant to disease – the
plant wilted and the leaves yellowed – I planted another one in early August.It grew very fast and set out a number of
butternuts.Some of the smaller fruits that set have
withered on the vine as the plant could not produce enough energy to support the new
fruits.But it looks like this plant
will give me at least three nice butternuts which is certainly better than none
at all. It just needs some more sunny
days to ripen them.

This bed was the greens bed in the spring.It had a planting of beans in the
summer.Now it’s got some carrots and
scallions and some green manure mix where the beans were.

This spring I planted two semi-dwarf apple trees on the
slope toward the pond, a Fuji and a Golden delicious.They have shown more vigor since the hot
weather ended and are growing well.Next
spring I’ll have to prune them, time to do a little research on that.

In the back of the picture is a new bed made by terracing
the slope with 2x4’s.I bought a yard of
dirt/compost mix, mounded it against the back wall of the terrace and covered it with some weed fabric
that was in the garage.The compost will
get a chance to mellow for a while, as it had the distinct smell of horse poop
when I bought it.I plant to plant
potatoes in this bed next year.

That’s the tour.There’s still lots of things that can be gotten from the garden in the
fall here in southern Indiana.

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About this Blog

I moved to this place in SW Indiana in 2008. The property is six acres of woods, pasture, yard and pond. Usable garden space with full sun is limited by surrounding trees to 250 square feet of raised beds, more the size of an urban garden. I use intensive techniques: rotation of plant families, nutrient cycling, cages and trellises, row cover and cold frames to get the most out of the space.

About Me

A native Hoosier, I worked in the construction trades and later in life got a chemistry degree and worked in a research lab until retirement. I raise vegetables because they taste better and it saves money. What other hobby pays for itself? I'm a cheapskate - I won't buy new seeds until the old ones aren't any good. I'm also a bit of a lazy gardener - if I can buy the seedlings I want then why start the seeds, or if I can engineer a way to make it less work I'll do so. I also drink too much beer. But I never (well almost never) work in the garden and drink beer.